Athens has been at the center of Georgia’s debate on prosecution of criminal suspects long before Laken Riley was murdered by a man who was a “guest” of our country, and should have been held on a detainer for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.  Riley’s accused murderer had been arrested previously in New York for child endangerment, and in Athens for shoplifting.  

New York has long declared itself a “sanctuary city”.  Athens pretends it is not, as state law doesn’t allow it.  Athens-Clark County Sheriff John Q Williams reportedly campaigned for his office saying he would not cooperate with ICE on detainers.  He now notes that Jose Ibarro, who is in his jail accused of Riley’s murder, was not booked into jail on his shoplifting charge. 

Which brings us to a post Athens area Representative Houston Gaines placed on Twitter/X about local gang violence.  One paragraph of it reads: 

“Light on crime policies don't work. Our criminal justice system is at a breaking point in Athens. One of the four suspects—Dakious Echols—in the murder from last weekend was arrested last year in Athens for running over a police officer's foot - he was charged with felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer and possession of a pistol by a person under 18. He was released on Unsecured Judicial Release - meaning no bond, and just a signature saying that he will show back up for court. He was arrested again just a short time later for giving a false name to a law enforcement officer. This time he was given a $100 bond. As you might guess, he failed to appear for court in December - and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest (that was active at the time of the murder). Additionally, he and Shytavious Mathis, one of the other suspects in this case, were both arrested in Sumter County last year for serious drug offenses.”

Of note here is that we’re not talking about “migrants” or undocumented immigrants. We’re not talking about a new problem that was only discovered after the murder of a nursing student out for her morning jog.  We’re unfortunately looking at an established pattern of local members of the law enforcement community deciding some crimes aren’t crimes at all. 

We have a Sheriff who doesn’t want to cooperate with federal authorities. We have those arrested for shoplifting who aren’t even taken to jail for processing, much less prosecution. We have accused felons involved in crimes using guns who are not held with bail, and when re-arrested again is returned to the street for just $100.  

Note that a Judge has to set bail.  So we have an entire cross section of law enforcement, from (an elected) Sheriff, to (an elected) Solicitor and/or D.A., to (an elected) Judge who are content to let accused criminals use a revolving door at the jail - if they ever see it - and the courthouse.

One could argue that this is what the people voted for.  The great columnist H.L. Menken once said that “Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want and deserve to get it, good and hard.” 

The people of Athens don’t deserve this. Equally importantly, crime doesn’t stop at county lines.  When gangs and other criminal elements are allowed safe sanctuary from arrest and prosecution, they merely have a base camp from which to export their crimes into neighboring jurisdictions.  

A decade ago, Georgia led the nation in efforts to reform the criminal justice system. Under Governor Deal, measure after measure was signed into law to help those who “messed up” be able to serve their sentence and pay a debt to society, but also be able to re-enter society and the workforce to be productive citizens.  

A key principle of his reforms was that non-violent offenders needed a path back to society, but that those accused of violent crime still needed thorough vetting throughout the justice system.  This, at the time, had bipartisan support.

I wrote a column almost four years ago noting that this coalition was frayed, and that if the part of the bargain on vigorous prosecution for those accused of violent crime was abandoned, all of the progress made was in jeopardy. We now stand at a point where dark money fuels the elections of entire slates of candidates who selectively detain and prosecute criminals, from petty thefts to violent crime. 

Those who wish to continue down this path note that crime statistics are down year over year, from ridiculously lofty peaks set in the aftermath of Covid shutdowns.  They need to be asked why any crime by a repeat offender who should be in jail is acceptable. 

I’m happy to get back on board a coalition for criminal justice reform. Unfortunately, with the original coalition bargain now broken, we’re going to instead get more laws just to try to ensure those elected to enforce the laws we already have actually do so.